In
the wake of Hurricane Katrina there were certain inevitabilities.
No, scores of thousands of hapless souls trapped in a city on a precipice
was not one of them. Personal and governmental responsibility would
have relegated that scenario to the realm of imagination. Nor were
looting and all the other manner and form of hooliganism and the resultant
pain and death inescapable realities. Possessing the intestinal fortitude
to issue a shoot on sight order would have kept the rats in their
holes and preserved lives and many lasses' honor.

But
there were inevitabilities.

You
had to know it was coming. I could feel it; I could smell it. I knew
it was only a matter of time - and not much time at that - before
the levees of decency and common-sense were breeched by the storm
surge of racial hatred and paranoia.

Then
it happened. The inevitable allegations that President Bush, FEMA
and rest of that infernal white establishment - whose mere shadow
ostensibly rendered the New Orleans black establishment impotent -
were at best indifferent to and at worst reveling in the plight of
the city's beleaguered black community.

And
that's how it started. Now, the usual pathology has appeared. From
platitudinous racial tripe, we've transitioned to true paranoia and
overt racial demagoguery, as the rabble-rousers who see a roarin'
twenties bigot clad in a white sheet around every corner engage in
their brand of looting.

Enter
stage left, Kanye West, a purveyor of the cultural effluent known
as rap. He had a hissy fit on stage during an NBC Katrina fundraiser
and started stammering and babbling quasi-incoherently in what amounted
to an assertion that the only thing black about George Bush was his
heart. West said that America was set up,

"
. . . to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow
as possible."

And,

"They've
given them permission to go down and shoot us . . ."

Lastly
he proclaimed,

"George
Bush doesn't care about black people."

Finding
one of his many soullessmates in the hollowed hells of government,
his remarks were defended by congressman Cynthia McKinney who said,

"As
I saw families ripped apart, I could only think about slavery. [They]
look like concentration camps."

Gee,
with countrymen like this in our corner in our darker hours, who needs
Al-Qaida?

Lost
- no doubt forever so - on these folks are a few little, insignificant
facts. For one thing, four of the five parishes hardest hit in New
Orleans were predominantly white. For another, most of the rescuers
were white and, lastly, the lion's share of the millions of dollars
that are pouring in from all points has been doled out by white hands.

As
for lending this perspective, that's as far as I'll go, since I'm
not too fond of exercises in futility. And as I throw up my hands
I can only echo the sentiments of Louis Armstrong, offered when asked
how one plays jazz: "If you have to ask, you'll never know."

No,
the McKinneys and Wests and Sharptons of the world may never know
how to interpret the actions of white folks because those wretches
view the latter through tinted glasses. But while they may never understand
whites, if whites want to understand them they have to understand
what I call "fighting the 'man' and black dogma."

Perhaps
the best way to illustrate this phenomenon is with a real-life example.
Everyone remembers the O.J. Simpson trial, and I think most of us
also recollect how it divided the country along racial lines. Simpson
was as guilty as sin, yet, polls showed that approximately two-thirds
of black people thought him innocent and, astoundingly, the same percentage
thought he shouldn't even stand trial.

Now,
to explain this, pseudo-intellectual pontificators postulated theories
having to do with blacks' disproportionately negative experiences
with law enforcement and the legal system, providing the wrong half
media with sound bites that pleased the politically-correct palate.
But a better explanation came from a far more anonymous and far less
guileful source.

Some
years back an individual close to my heart got to talking about the
Simpson case with a rather frank black woman, a person who, I imagine,
was a "one-thirder." This woman explained that most of the black folks
proclaiming Simpson's innocence didn't really believe it in their
hearts, it was simply designed for white people's consumption. In
other words, they were abiding by a tenet of black dogma: thou shalt
always defend thine own and fight the "man."

This
dogma dictates that racial-patriotism is the greatest virtue. As such,
you don't give up one of your own to the opposition. It doesn't matter
what he has done, what he is or who he has hurt, you don't give white
people a victory.

What
about right and wrong? Isn't it wrong to kill, steal and rape? Must
not justice be done? Sure . . . but . . . there's a hierarchy here.
And occupying the top spot is the greatest good of all: that racial-patriotism.
It justifies all, spares none and gives no quarter. Everything must
be subordinated to that imperative.

Of
course, black people who reject and even abhor the dogma are easy
to find. But since deviation from the dogma is apostasy, many are
either given no voice or are cowed into silence. I suppose you could
call them the silent minority of the minority.

Then,
too, those possessing both a large podium and a stout heart are also
present, and their voices are strong and defiant. They would be individuals
such as Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Alan Keyes, Jesse Lee Peterson,
Bill Cosby and the members of Project 21. But having left the liberal
plantation, they've become the lynched minority of the minority of
the minority, as they are held in contempt as race-traitors and labeled
Oreos and Uncle Toms.

Such
hostility is not surprising, however, because black dogma is not an
invention of the intellect, and it certainly isn't divinely inspired.
Rather, it's born of the emotional realm, having wrath as its impetus.

And
there's a funny thing about anger and hatred: it blinds one. If you've
ever wondered why rumors circulated in the black community that AIDS
was the fruits of an effort to commit genocide against black people,
or that the drug trade was being facilitated by the CIA for the purposes
of undermining black progress, wonder no more. If you've ever wondered
how it is that so many black people are willing to attribute anything
and everything - such as Michael Jackson's skin bleaching, blacks'
poor academic performance and their high rate of incarceration - to
bigotry, wonder no more. An angry man is blind to truth, because anger
is like darkness: the more there is, the less you can see.

It's
much like that tormented soul you once knew who harbored a burning
antipathy, one on which the sun never set. Perhaps it was directed
against you or someone you know. If you were the object, you could
do nothing right as he viewed you with the most jaundiced of eyes.
Your failings were never mere accidents, but always purposeful attempts
to thwart him or be a thorn in his side. If you did him a good turn,
it was perceived as quite the opposite or, at best, as having been
driven by ulterior motives. You see, he knew what you were, or, at
least he thought he did. And he knew what to expect from the likes
of you.

So
it is with the adherents of the cult of black dogma: they know what
white people are and what to expect from them. They know that white
people are consumed with concerns about race and are inherently bigoted.
They know that whites conspire to keep blacks down and that their
nefarious machinations are as many as the stars in the sky. They know
all these things, or, at least they think they do.

This
is why we hear some black folks become truly exercised over the use
of the word "refugees" to describe flood victims. They know that the
use of this word, assuming it is in fact inappropriate to the situation,
cannot be an innocent slip of the pen or the product of a zealous
effort to capture the drama of a disaster of biblical proportions.
No, no, it's just another attempt by the white establishment to stigmatize
black people. That's what whites do, you see.

At
this juncture one may ask about the other side of the coin: is there
not white dogma? Well, needless to say, every group contains elements
that subscribe to a version of racial dogma. But, while this may disappoint
you, you won't see this pen issue any desperate disclaimers, pretend
as if differences between groups are non-existent or pay homage to
populist ideas of being "fair and balanced." This is because I know
that true balance involves being centered around the truth, not jumping
through hoops to remain situated at the center of a political spectrum
whose heart is occupied by the characteristic prejudice of the day.

So,
what is the truth? It's something you will hardly ever read or hear
in the media, for it's one of the many third rails of social commentary.
Some dare think it, but to give it voice is forbidden. This truth
is that, generally speaking, bigotry and racial hatred imbue the black
community to a far greater degree than the white one. Racial dogma
lies at the heart of black America, and while it is found in white
America as well, it's present only at its fringes. It doesn't characterize
the white collective psyche.

The
reason for this is simple. There are two Americas, as a rather dim-witted
presidential aspirant once opined, but not in the way he meant. You
see, white and black children are raised with very different sets
of values and ideas, yielding disparate world views. The average white
child nowadays is raised with either little mention of race or with
the idea that prejudice in any form is to be considered anathema.
He isn't inculcated with ideas about taking pride in his "whiteness"
or white identity any more than in his hair or eye color. Oh, don't
get me wrong, white people have their obsessions, too. But these obsessions
are as likely to involve any one of a plenitude of other things as
they are to involve race.

In
contrast, most black children are weaned on entirely different stuff
altogether. From infancy they are barraged with the idea, transmitted
both implicitly and explicitly, that race is a central factor in their
lives. They are told to "take pride" in being black and may hear affirmations
like, "You're going to be a strong, young black man!" In schools and
often at home there is a gratuitous focus on the transgressions committed
against those who they are told are "their people" and, furthermore,
they're instilled with the notion that an invisible hand of oppression
bedevils them to this day. The white man has kept you down; the white
man has oppressed you. Theirs is to imbibe this daily, starting with
a baby formula laced with black dogma.

This
is an old story; it's the story of how hate has been perpetuated throughout
the ages. It's no different from the plight of the millions of Arab
children who are radicalized in madrassahs steeped in anti-American
and anti-Jewish propaganda. And as the twig is bent, so grows the
tree.

This
is also why the Cynthia McKinneys, Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons
of the world are the most loathsome of creatures. These false prophets
maintain their power and control by perpetuating this cycle of hatred,
thereby ensuring that each generation of black youth will feel alienated
from their white brethren. In turn, that ensures that Americans will
remain divided.

But
there's another consequence.

By
crippling generations of black children with black dogma - a philosophy
of hate, defeatism, nihilism and failure - they corrupt their minds
and consciences and damn them to a netherworld of moral, spiritual
and material poverty.

And
this is the genocide perpetrated upon the black community. It's not
one that figures prominently in history books and is attended by grisly
images of piles of corpses, and the agent of destruction isn't a virus
or drug. It's a spiritual genocide, and its agent is found in the
realm of ideas.

Of
course, I don't expect the black dogmatists to lose much sleep over
their ruinous stewardship of the black community. You see, long ago
we learned that by their reckoning battles against oppression are
only worth waging insofar as they enable you to fight the man. They
proved this when they were willing to go to the ends of the Earth
to overturn Apartheid in South Africa, while turning a blind eye to
the greater transgressions being perpetrated upon Africans by black
African governments. They prove it when they insist on resurrecting
the ghosts of our antebellum past in every history discussion, while
uttering nary a word about the present-day slavery rampant in African
lands. They prove that what bothers them most isn't the weight of
the iron fist that crushes the souls of their brothers, but the color
of it. And lastly, and damnably, they prove that they believe that
when the slave-master looks back at them in the mirror, those in bondage
to him aren't called a slave class. They're called a constituency.

Selwyn Duke lives in Westchester County, New
York. He's a tennis professional, internet entrepreneur and writer whose
works have appeared on various sites on the Internet, including Intellectual
Conservative, nenewamerica.us (Alan Keyes) and Mensnet. Selwyn has traveled
extensively in his life, visiting exotic locales such as India, Morocco
and Algeria and quite a number of other countries while playing the international
tennis circuit.

Then it happened. The inevitable allegations that President Bush, FEMA
and rest of that infernal white establishment - whose mere shadow ostensibly
rendered the New Orleans black establishment impotent...